I hope you all are ready for some country music by women because after my latest trip to Nashville I’m even more determined to promote female country artists. Despite what country radio would have you believe, they do in fact exist. It’s only January 24 and I already have enough new music tagged to write New Music Friday posts for an entire month. That will obviously only continue to grow. I think I might just write about country ladies until I run out of them.

My first post is actually about Little Big Town, a country group that is mostly fronted by ladies but which is composed of two women and two men. So there are some songs fronted by men, but for the most part Karen Fairchild is their frontwoman so I’m going to go with it. They have actually been a fixture in country music radio for the past decade until this album apparently. Their new album Nightfall came out last Friday, but I haven’t heard either of the singles that have been out since last fall on my local country station.

It’s probably because the new album for the most part doesn’t fit into country music’s current obsession with men and their obsessions with trucks, women, and drinking. Stephen Thompson from NPR music called it “…very adult songwriting. Songs for grownups about grownups.” That is not something country music seems terribly interested in. It’s not really a surprise that country music radio didn’t want to touch the first single off the album, “The Daughters”, which contains lyrics like

“And pose like a trophy on a shelf
Dream for everyone, but not yourself
I’ve heard of God the Son and God the Father
I’m just looking for a God for the daughters”.

Aside from the one dumb drinking song that I guess they thought was obligatory and which I skip every time I listen to the album, the whole thing is fantastic. It’s beautiful and profound country music with songs that address real issues. It’s by far my favorite Little Big Town album. Of course it’s the only Little Big Town album I think I’ve listened to all the way through. Although I’ve enjoyed their singles in the past they did not for whatever reason ever inspire me to dig deeper, but the two songs I heard off this album to start made me want to listen to the whole thing and I’m so very glad I did.

I really do encourage you to listen to the entire album, but if you don’t want to at least listen to “The Daughters”.